Friday, 30 May 2008

Utsab (The Festival) [2001]

The Bengali auteur Rituparno Ghosh is famous for his sensitive portrayals of simple human relationships, and this great skill of his is at its pinnacle in Utsab. The auspicious and happy times of the Durga Pujas is chosen as the apt occasion for the congregation of family members at their once aristocratic ancestral house. The feelings of celebration and gaiety, however, are ensconced by a lingering sense of doom and simmering tensions because of a carefully wrapped secret that is trying to burst through the otherwise façade of geniality and joy. Meanwhile a beautiful but dangerous love story is building, evoking memories of a similar event that happened many years back that had nearly broken the family into fragmented individuals. Terrific performances by Mamata Shankar, Rituparna Sengupta, Prosenjit Chatterjee (in a wonderful cameo as an alcoholic underachieving husband) et al, and an unhurried, mesmeric narrative have established this unforgettable film as the highly talented director’s most personal effort.